From time to time I think about what if I were a millionaire, would I be an ordinary millionaire or I'd go and reinvent the very definition of being a millionaire? Would I be able to sleep at night knowing that there are people enduring the cold or the hunger, knowing that there are people who once had homes but because they went through hard financial times they were evicted and now are living on the streets? My thoughts go to them every day and although I do not believe in God I pray, in a way, for them to get on their feet and live their lives to their fullest. Of course being alone in this doesn't mean very much.
A few days ago I accidentally stumbled upon a YouTube video, a sort of documentary about the richest men of the world, the way they live, how they spend their money and how they treat others. It seriously bummed me out that they buy next-door houses which are not cheap at all, are worth at least a few millions, just to ensure themselves with the exclusivity of not having any neighbors.
Mark Cuban, whoever he is, bought a 15-million dollars house and he says and I quote "A buddy of mine said "trust me, it's a great deal" and then I said "OK", when you have a lot of money you can take chances. That's one of the great things about being a billionaire, you know?!" That "you know?!" was like a baseball bat over my head, you moron, how in the world would I know how is taking chances on a fifteen million dollars property without seeing it? I bet you can build your own house for much less money and be as happy as they are when it comes to living conditions.
Back to the part where they buy million dollars properties which stay empty for years, nobody lives in them when thousands of people are homeless and their lives keep going down hill. It's simply outrageous. Bill Gates, we all know who Bill Gates is, owns a whooping 140-million megahome and since it didn't come with the exclusivity of not having any neighbors, he bought additional 11 properties for another 14.5 million dollars, basically isolating himself and his family members from the rest of the world.
While billionaires like Bill Gates buy available real estate, a billionaire like Saudi Prince with a wealth of 20 billion dollars builds his own palace spending on it no less than 130 million dollars, it has 317 rooms with a luxury you can't even imagine, swimming pools, bowling alley, screening rooms, beauty salons and many other luxuries are also present.
Millionaires and billionaires don't fly commercial jets, don't take trains or ride a ferryboat. They buy limousines such as Rolls-Royce Phantoms , they buy jumbo jets such Boeing 767 or even the ultimate Airbus A380, but if that is not enough they buy mega yachts which according to some, it's the ultimate fight between billionaires about who is the richest
Now let's imagine that I am a billionaire, you can do that as well. What would I do? What would I buy? Let's do it like a bucketlist.
- Build a hospital in my native country, fully equipped with state of the art medical equipment, hire the best medical staff in the country and if necessary hire international medical staff.
- Build a railway to tie the north with the south, giving the people the possibility to easily commute for a job they couldn't find in their living area. To make that possible it would be necessary to have a high-speed train such a TGV.
- Build youth centers all over the country, being the member of a youth organization and not having a place to gather and plan activities was a real struggle until Peace Corps and Sharon Hakim helped us raise the necessary fund to build a Youth Center, a place of our own.
- Build schools, buy school buses so every children would have access to an education, being safely taken to the scholo and then back home to their parents. Also a good idea would be repairing old schools as sometimes it is cheaper than building schools from scratch. Repairing them but not forgetting about safety. Safety is above them all.
- Build houses for poor people, giving them the peace they deserve, giving them the calmness of being in their own home, feeling secure.
- Funding the studies for truly gifted kids, special kids who can dance, play instruments, are good at math or physics, dreaming of becoming doctors, who can play Shakespeare and become amazing actors, believe in them, give them moral support, offer them well-designed non-formal education trainings to prepare them to meet their bright futures.
- Fund Centers for Children with Special Abilities, help children that cannot take care of themselves, help parents who have such children, help these kids become integral parts of the society and benefit from everything like other people do.
- Fund youth projects
- Fund personal/family business projects, start-ups.
- Fund campaigns on changing or adjusting national legislation. Unfortunately the legislation of my country has more holes in it than swiss cheese. That needs to be changed. Hire teams to write bills to adjust the legislation. (not sure I said it right, if not please do correct me)
Let's face it, I'm not gonna be a millionaire, ever, not to mention the insane idea of becoming a billionaire. But the list above is a nice bucketlist for any of them. But I guess once they became filthy rich the forgot everything about honesty, morals, integrity, sharing, kindness, helping other in need, feeding the poor, and so on.
This is a call to all millionaires and billionaires. I dare them to do at least on thing off my bucketlist.
From one point of view being rich sucks, besides money they have nothing that is truly valuable, they're paranoid all the time, that they might lose it and be poor, and that no one will look at them, well guess what, how many people appreciate them for what they are and nor for their money? Being rich certainly has its perks, but if they're not being rich the right way nothing truly matters. But is there a right way to be rich? I bet there is, but finding it is a very hard task.
Oh I wish to be rich to test my own theory. Other than that I wish you to be happy more than I wish you to be rich, at least financially speaking, I wish you to be rich when it comes to having true friends, who will support you and stand by you no matter what, when you have true friends nothing seems hard to get through. That is what i wish you.
This is it for now, as always, be good to one another and by doing that you might save a life.
